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Sustainable fashion: Veteran designer innovates with bamboo-silk ikat
Designer Madhu Jain, who actively works towards conserving India’s textiles and crafts, has come up with bamboo-silk ikat that adds to Indian fashion’s sustainable future
Her name is synonymous with ikat — textile processed with resist dyeing — and now, Delhi-based design veteran and textile conservationist, Madhu Jain is doing her bit for the growing need for sustainability in fashion.
Jain, who has been in the fashion industry for three decades, has come up with bamboo-silk ikat — an innovating weaving of bamboo with yarns of khadi, cotton, chanderi and wool — which will be launched in Delhi later this week, after 15 years in the making.
“This new textile does not eat into the earth’s meagre resources. With bamboo being plentiful in India, it will provide livelihood options for bamboo growers. Also, it’s biodegradable; so the fabric will leave negligible ecological footprint. It’s a fabric of the future,” she says.
Though Jain has always been eco-positive, it is only now that the concept of environment-friendly fashion has become a hot topic. And what does she think about the future of sustainable fashion in India? “My response would be a resounding yes! We need to bring down the carbon footprint. Thankfully, the concept of eco-fashion is catching on, and I increasingly find more designers following the trend that I started 30 years ago,” she says.
However, the aim is not only to bring in innovation, but also to revive India’s crafts. “When I collaborated with BRAC Bangladesh [an NGO] I worked with rural weavers across Bangladesh to revive Nakshi Kantha embroidery and Dhaka muslin. Both the fabrics had almost vanished from the textiles map. That experience cemented my resolve to devote my work to ensuring artisanal livelihoods,” she says
With bamboo being plentiful in India, it will provide livelihood options for bamboo growers MADHU JAIN, FASHION DESIGNER